Everyone in my family was smiling as wide as they possibly could, expect from mum she was crying tears of joy. In a way, she had been the one most affected by this war.
The stress of having children in this time must have been enormous and she had lost almost all of her family. Dad hadn't really had much in the first place.
I saw many fireworks on the day after the defeat of you-know-who, poor Harry though, he lost his parents and was probably being carried towards abusive relatives this very moment.
I laughed not really knowing why this was funny, it just was in a way. An ironic way, the one who brought forth such joy in a nation is now sent to suffer and eventually become an irrevocably broken child because of that.
Now moving on to more important things like the ward stopping me from leaving the first floor.
Staring at the ward touching it at random times, I didn't notice my favourite Bill sneaking up on me until he lifted me up and started tickling me.
My body betrayed me and I started giggling like a madman. "Stop stop". My voice sounded like a banshee, damn.
"What are you doing Won Won, trying to fall down the stairs again?"I turned to look at him since he finally stopped his tickling attack and answered in the most serious voice I could muster.
"Pretty blue lights", like that would explain everything. It did in a way, the barrier shone with a pale blue light every time you touched it, the more force you applied, the brighter it got.
My oldest brother looked at me weirdly, damn he didn't believe me. Bill was pretty smart for an 11-year-old. He puffed up his chest and took on a sophisticated mien, which to be quite honest made him look more constipated than anything.
"You don't have to lie to me you wanted to see the rest of the house didn't you?", he said in a conspiratorial tone.
I sat there stunned looking at him like he was a genius for figuring out my nefarious plot. I nodded 4 times in succession.
He immediately hoisted me up and carried me over the ward.
SENSE MAGIC SKILL HAS BEEN CREATED
Magical sense (passive) lv. 1 Exp:26%
Sense the magic around you
-range 2 inches
I grinned, was about time I'd been trying to gain that skill for the last 8 months. I wondered how I gained EXP. Though I hadn't heard anything about quests yet.
'Experience system description!'
Gain experience by learning/experiencing new things
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"Ron are you okay, you've been spacing out?", should have waited to go back to the crib I was slowly getting too big for, to check the game. I could notice he was actually concerned by his use of my real name.
I shouted "Freedom!" jumped out of his arms and ran screaming into the kitchen, this would distract him from my blanking out.
"cheeky bugger", he muttered and started play-chasing me, at the end of it I ended up lying on the floor out of exhaustion and he scolded by mum until his ears were red.
"You are leaving for Hogwarts soon Bill, I hope I won't be getting any letters from school about you. Now take your brother to bed, you're grounded for the rest of the day!"
I let myself be carried, and said to Bill "Worth?", he grinned "Worth".
Bill snuck into my room later that night holding the tales of Beedle the bard. "Do you want to hold the book while I read it."
I nodded and stretched out my hands for the book, receiving it. "Just say the title of the story you want to hear the book will open itself on the corresponding page."
This was totally a test, he wouldn't be using that vocabulary unless he wanted to test my intelligence, I guess they suspected I was smarter than the average kid. I puffed out my chest mentally.
Whatever. "three brothers." I felt the magic travel along my tendril, form in my hands and get absorbed in the book. I sat there blankly staring at the words. If it wouldn't have made Bill worried or suspicious I would have facepalmed so hard people in china would have heard it.
I'd been doing the magic thing wrong, materialising the magic in the middle of my body was fucking stupid why hadn't I seen that. The only place wizards ever used their magic out of were their damn hands. I sighed, having to wait to research this sucked but I was pretty hyped for this famous story.
"There were once three brothers who cheated death..."
Heh cheated Death.
I fell asleep immediately, I was only a year and some months old after all.
-/-
The second I woke up the next day I tried to summon magic in my hands, it worked, but it was
dissipating incredibly fast, what did I even want to do with my magic now that I had it?
Fire.
It didn't work, the surface above my hand became warmer but otherwise, nothing happened and when I tried to draw on more magic I got the distinct feeling the tendril connecting me to the source was too tired to manage.
I decided to leave my room and grind my magic sense on the ward, but found it to not be there anymore. My parents must have taken it down, the one leading upstairs was still up.
"Explore downstairs or learn more about magic?"
The answer was obvious.
Three hours later I was staring at the ward like it had personally offended me with it's very existence.
Three hours of grinding and I'd gotten 3% EXP in the skill, 1% coming from me touching the tales of Beedle the bard.
This time I did facepalm, nobody was around me at the moment. Of course I wouldn't get much experience from touching this thing. I'd been doing it for the last 8 months.
It was in the name for heaven's sake. Experience, I needed to experience new things not just repeat the old ones.
I stood up by pushing myself up with my hands.
"Ouch, shouldn't have facepalmed that hard." I muttered to myself as I went to my room and picked up the tales of Beedle the bard that Bill had left there earlier.
Sensing magic was... weird, I suddenly had a 6th sense that could comprehend magic around me in all directions for 3 cm. The strength of the feeling wasn't all too strong if you compared it to touch it would be like wind brushing over your skin ever so lightly.
I wondered if others felt magic differently, maybe by taste?
The book felt different than the ward but in a not discernable way, maybe one day I'd be able to identify what kind of magic I was feeling but that day was far off.
I had been right of course, 15 minutes after me starting to examine the book with my skill I got a 1% increase, 24 minutes after that once more a 1% increase. Only after 1 hour did I get another one.
The time it took to level the skill, a level 1 skill at that meant I would need to invest a lot of time into working, which honestly wasn't as bad as it sounded since. Could one ever get bored of magic? I think not.
-/-
When dad found me sitting on the floor staring blankly at a book he assumed I wanted to learn how to read. Thus started my second schooling, I was done in a week. But it had been nice bonding time